My theory is that ET signals were most likely to detect are meant for their probes. Something like voyager. Nearby civilizations will send interstaller probes

My theory is that ET signals were most likely to detect are meant for their probes. Something like voyager. Nearby civilizations will send interstaller probes to the closest stars first. Because that's what everybody would do. And their scientists are more likely to get money to communicate with probes than speculative aliens. And as an interstaller probe gets closer to the target system, the amounts of power needed to communicate with it is enormous. Altogether this means first contact is likely to be a radio or laser signal meant for an interstellar probe that's headed towards us. All theory crafting though lol. But it would jive 100% with funding realities on our planet. I think for this reason alone we should listen to our ~20 closest neighbors extra well. The sad downside is that if they're the closest star to us, we're also likely the closest star to them. That means very few civilizations would send a probe to us first :'(